The knitted gloves disclosed herein are industrial gloves used by people in their jobs to protect their hands. Of course, and as should be appreciated, the invention disclosed herein could be used to sew or serge a cuff opening on knitted gloves intended for uses other than industrial uses. Suffice it to say, knitted gloves are automatically manufactured as a one-piece article on knitting machines starting with the body, which may be configured with finger portions, and ending with a continuous sleeve or cuff opening. Because the glove is formed from a knitted material, however, the continuous sleeve or cuff opening must be protected to prevent unraveling of the knitted yarn.
Glove manufacturers are known to manually serge or overedge the cuff edge or wrist opening of knit gloves using a conventional sewing machine having stitching instrumentalities capable of producing overedge stitching along the cuff edge. To accomplish this operation, the operator loads the glove onto the sewing machine and manually guides and assists in feeding the glove through a sewing cycle. As the raw cuff edge is fed toward and through the sewing instrumentalities of the sewing machine, the operator must be continually vigilant to maintain the cuff edge in relatively constant relation relative to the stitching instrumentalities to ensure the cuff edge is properly serged. Of course, if the operator is not vigilant or lacks the skills necessary for properly serging the cuff edge, the raw edge of the cuff can be overfed, thus, causing an unacceptable roll in the cuff edge resulting in a rejectable work product.
As the end of the sewing cycle approaches, and the sewn cuff edge is again presented to the sewing instrumentalities, the operator sews over the sewn cuff edge thereby overlapping the beginning or leading stitches in the stitches in the seam to "lock" the stitching in place. In heretofore known operations, the operator decides the extent of overlap or oversew of the sewn cuff edge. Moreover, the operator decides when the sewn cuff edge is to be laterally removed from beneath a presser foot on the sewing machine to allow the sewing instrumentalities to sew off the cuff edge. That is, at the completion of the sewing cycle, the operator laterally removes the sewn cuff edge from beneath a presser foot on the sewing machine and thereafter continues to operate the machine thereby creating a thread chain extending between the sewn cuff edge of the knitted glove and sewing instrumentalities on the sewing machine. Of course, to release the sewn glove from the sewing machine, the thread chain extending between the sewn cuff edge and the sewing instrumentalities must be manually severed or cut.
An acceptable glove product requires the thread chain extending from the cuff edge to be very short, typically only one-quarter of an inch or less is allowed. Accordingly, the thread chain extending from the sewn cuff edge must be manually severed or cut within approximately one-quarter inch of the sewn seam on the glove. Moreover, and shortly after the operator begins to serge another glove, the operator must interrupt the sewing operation to again manually sever the thread chain with a pair of scissors.
Sewing machines having mechanized thread chain cutting devices are readily available in the sewing industry. While such mechanized thread chain cutters are available, to sever the thread chain within only one-quarter of an inch of the sewn seam requires a highly skilled operator. In an effort to produce a short thread chain, the sewn seam of the glove cuff and sometimes the glove itself becomes entangled with the thread chain cutter, thus, producing an unacceptable workpiece or glove. As will be apparent from the above, the quality of sewing, the amount of oversew, the cycle time and the length of thread chain extending from the sewn cuff edge are all dependent on the operator's skill and judgment.
Often times, it is desirable to elasticize the cuff or wrist portion of an industrial glove. As such, a wearer's hand may be easily inserted into the glove and yet, the glove, when on the hand, will fit closely around the cuff or wrist of the wearer. As such, and in environments involving dirt or the like, debris will not readily pass into the glove. In this regard, a continuous band of elastic has been known to be attached about the cuff edge. Heretofore, attachment of the elastic or rubber band was accomplished as an independent function separate from the overedge or serging operation discussed above. Thus, the addition of such elastic or rubber band adds considerably to the overall cost of the glove. Again, and as will be readily appreciated, independent attachment of a continuous elastic or rubber band about the wrist portion of a sewn cuff requires an operator having both skill and experience to accomplish this labor intensive task.
In addition to those features mentioned above, some glove manufacturers desire a label to be sewn into the overedge seam and along the cuff edge. Although desirable, several problems are presented when a label is to be sewn into the overedge seam and along a cuff edge of the glove. First, little or no variance is permitted regarding placement of the label location along the overedge seam. Preferably, the label is centered along the sewn cuff edge. Second, the label must extend generally normal or perpendicular to the to the cuff edge. Moreover, the label should be consistently secured across its entire width by the overedge seam extending along the sewn cuff edge. Additionally, the presence of the label on the cuff edge should not significantly increase costs of the glove.
Heretofore, insertion of the label along the sewn cuff edge required an operator to begin sewing the cuff edge and then visually assess where to manually insert the label. After assessing the location for label insertion, the sewing machine is stopped and the label is manually inserted under the presser foot. Thereafter, sewing is resumed with the label being secured in place by the sewing instrumentalities of the sewing machine. Of course, and upon resumption of the sewing process, the label often inadvertently shifts and is sewn into the cuff edge seam in other than normal or perpendicular relation to the sewn seam and is skewed with respect to the cuff edge. As discussed above with respect to both sewing the cuff edge and elasticizing the sewn cuff edge, requiring insertion of a label into the sewn cuff edge furthermore requires manual skill and lengthy experience on the part of the operator to accomplish proper positioning and sewing of the label. Of course, improper positioning or sewing of the label into the sewn cuff edge of a knit glove diminishes the quality of the glove product while increasing the number or volume of products which must be rejected for failure to meet quality standards of most glove manufacturers.
Thus, there is a need and a desire for a system and method for automating the process of serging or overedge sewing a cuff edge of a knit glove to inhibit the glove from inadvertently unraveling and such that a thread chain of consistent predetermined length extends from the sewn cuff edge of the knit glove. Moreover, there is a need and a desire for an apparatus and method for automating the process of serging or overedging a cuff edge of a knit glove and whereby the cuff edge can be elasticized and may further include a label inserted within the sewn cuff edge.